bludgeon
/ˈblʌdʒ(ə)n
/noun
A thick stick with a heavy end, used as a weapon: maces and spiked bludgeons...
- Knives, bludgeons and handguns are the weapons of kidnappers, not rifles, which are cumbersome, restricting, and inappropriate for violent situations in close quarters.
- On searching the house at Kimberworth where he resided at that time, three officers found a number of very formidable looking sticks or bludgeons and a large quantity of netting.
- They all started making films three decades or more ago, when documentaries were considered more than rhetorical bludgeons and instructional tools for the incurious and semi-literate.
Synonyms
cudgel, club, stick, truncheon, baton, bat, heavy weapon, blunt instrument;
North American nightstick, blackjack
British informal cosh
verb [with object]
1Beat (someone) repeatedly with a bludgeon or other heavy object: she was found bludgeoned to death in the basement...
- He was bludgeoned to death with the butt of a pistol on the Caribbean island of Margarita on Sunday, October 16.
- And it is no secret Martha was bludgeoned to death.
- He was bludgeoned to death outside the nightclub.
Synonyms
batter, cudgel, club, strike, hit, beat, beat up, hammer, thrash
informal clobber
1.1Force or bully (someone) to do something: she was determined not to be bludgeoned into submission...
- No one, however, has reported on the extent to which voters were bludgeoned into voting one way or another by various local thugs.
- Most of these civil societies have been bludgeoned into silence by their regimes, with even the more representative systems denying their citizens true political participation.
- Mark was a State employee with no criminal history before he was indicted for a crime that he did not commit and now his family are finacially ruined and he has been bludgeoned into signing a plea bargain by the legal vampires.
Synonyms
coerce, force, compel, press, pressurize, pressure, drive, bully, browbeat, hector, badger, dragoon, steamroller;
oblige, make, prevail on, constrain
informal strong-arm, railroad, bulldoze, put the screws on, turn/tighten the screws on
1.2 (bludgeon one's way) Make one’s way by brute force: he bludgeoned his way through the crowd...
- I'd bludgeoned my way into their restaurant, forcing them to exchange food for money at a rate highly favorable to them!
- Suddenly, the player who represents the hard inner core with which England have bludgeoned their way into world rugby's top three, has found himself caught up in a series of less appealing matters.
- Leeds United bludgeoned their way back into Premiership title contention after an ugly battle against Tottenham Hotspur at Elland Road.
Origin
Mid 18th century: of unknown origin.